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Taste of water

The flavour of every natural mineral water bears the hallmark of its origins. At Nestlé Waters, we think it’s time more attention was paid to the taste of our waters.

A matter of taste

The varying proportions of mineral salts that give natural mineral waters their beneficial qualities mean that each water has its own distinctive properties. But they are also responsible for giving each water its specific taste. We have decided to turn the spotlight on the taste of water, so that consumers can more easily choose what water to drink by criteria of taste.

There has never been very much attention given to the taste of water in the past. So we decided to set up an initiative that will allow us to categorise and classify the taste of all our waters. But if we are to do that, we need to create a vocabulary for water tasting.

A panel of palates

The flavour and density of a particular water depend on the characteristics of the “terroir” that produced it, just like a fine wine or a fine tea. So, in our initiative to analyse and define the taste of water, what could be more natural than turning to highly trained professionals that operate in the wine industry?

We created a tasting team consisting of three internationally renowned sommeliers, and we set them to work on no fewer than 140 waters from all over the world. These highly refined palates patiently assessed each water in turn, capturing their flavours and nuances, defining their sweet and salty notes.

These tasting specialists cross-referenced their appreciations with those of our own in-house experts, including a highly trained sensory analyst, and a series of tests have been carried out in several countries to confirm the panel’s findings.

What’s the result of all this work? A new classification of water tastes, broken down into six families.